Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer conferencing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-17
2001-02-20
Vu, Viet D. (Department: 2758)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer conferencing
C709S205000, C709S241000, C379S202010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192395
ABSTRACT:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention discloses an apparatus and method for identifying which participants in a multi-participant events are speaking. Exemplary multi-participant events include audio conferences and an on-line games.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Historically, multi-participant events such as multi-party conferences have been hosted using Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTNs) and/or commercial wireless networks. Although such networks allow multiple participants to speak at once, they are unsatisfactory because they provide no means for visually identifying each participant in the event. More recently, teleconferencing systems that rely on Internet Protocol based networks have been introduced. Such systems, which enable two or more persons to speak to each other using the Internet, are often referred to as “Internet telephony.”
Multi-participant events include audio conferences and on-line games. Such events typically rely on the conversion of analog speech to digitized speech. The digitized speech is routed to all other participants across a network using the Internet Protocol (“IP”) and “voice over IP” or “VOIP” technologies. Accordingly, each participant to the multi-participant event has a client computer. When a participant speaks, the speech is digitized and broken down into packets that may be transferred to other participants using a protocol such as IP, transmission control protocol (TCP), or user datagram protocol (UDP). See, for example, Peterson & Davie,
Computer Networks,
1996, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, Calif.
While prior art Internet telephony is adequate for limited purposes, such as a basic two-party conference call in which only one participant speaks at any given time, prior art telephony systems are unsatisfactory. First, they frequently do not permit multiple participants to speak at the same time without data loss. That is, if one participant speaks, the participant typically cannot hear what other people said while the participant was speaking. Second, prior art telephony does not adequately associate a visual identifier with each participant. Therefore, when a multi-participant event includes several participants, they have difficulty determining who is speaking. Some Internet telephony systems have attempted to remedy this deficiency by requiring (i) that only one speaker talk at any given time and/or by (ii) posting, on each client associated with a participant in the multi-participant event, the icon of the current speaker. However, such solutions to the problem in the art are unsatisfactory because effective multi-participant communication requires that their be an ability for multiple people to simultaneously speak. Therefore, the concept of waiting in line for the chance to speak is not a satisfactory solution to the problem in the art.
A third drawback with prior art systems is that they provide no mechanism for associating the characteristics of a participant with a visual identifier that is displayed on the client associated with each participant in the multi-participant event. Such characteristics could be, for example, a visual representation of how loudly a particular speaker is speaking relative to some historical base state associated with the participant. A fourth drawback of prior art Internet telephony systems is that they provide an unsatisfactory privilege hierarchy for dictating who may participate in a particular multi-participant event. For example, in typical prior art systems, there is no privilege hierarchy and any user, i.e. the public, may join the multi-participant event. Such multi-participant events can be designated as “public forums.” While public forums serve a limited purpose, they suffer from the drawback that there is no protection against hecklers or otherwise disruptive participants in the event. To summarize this point, prior art systems are unsatisfactory because they do not provide a set of hierarchical privileges that are associated with a participant and that allow participants to designate events as private, public, or moderated. As used in this context, private events include conference calls in which the participants are preselected, typically by each other. Other users of a system may not join the event unless invited by one of the existing participants. Public events are those in which anyone can join and speak at any time. Moderated events may be public or private, but require that at least one participant be given enhanced privileges, such as the privilege to exclude particular participants, invite participants or grant and deny speaking privileges to participants.
What is needed in the art is an Internet telephony system and method that provides the tools necessary to conduct an effective multi-participant event. Such a system should not have limitations on the number of participants that may concurrently speak. Further, such a system should provide an adequate way of identifying the participants in the multi-participant event.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The system and method of the present invention addresses the need in the art by providing an Internet telephony system and method that visually identifies the participants in a multi-participant event. In the present invention, there is no limitation on the number of participants that may concurrently speak. Each participant in a multi-participant event is associated with a visual identifier. The visual identifier of each participant is displayed on the client display screen of the respective participants in the multi-participant event. In one embodiment, at least one characteristic of the participant is reflected in the visual identifier associated with the participant. Further, the system and method of the present invention addresses the unmet need in the art by providing participants with the flexibility to assign a privilege hierarchy. Using this privilege hierarchy, events may be designated as public, private, or moderated and selected participants may be granted moderation privileges.
A system in accordance with one aspect of the present invention includes a participant data structure comprising a plurality of participant records. Each participant record is associated with a different participant in a multi-participant event. Multi-participant events of the present invention include audio conferences and on-line games. Further, systems in accordance with one aspect of the present invention include an application module, which provides a user interface to the multi-participant event, and a sound control module that is capable of receiving packets from a network connection. Each packet is associated with a participant in the multi-participant event and includes digitized speech from the participant. The sound controller has a set of buffers. Each buffer preferably manages packets as a first-in first-out queue. The sound controller further includes a packet controller that determines which participant is associated with each packet that has been received by the network connection. The sound controller routes the packet to a buffer based on the identity of the participant associated with the packet. The sound controller also includes a visual identification module for determining which participants in the multi-participant event are speaking. The visual identification module updates the visual identifier associated with each participant that is speaking to reflect the fact that they are speaking. Further the visual identification module updates the visual identifier associated with each participant that is not speaking to reflect the fact that they are not speaking. Finally, systems in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention include a sound mixer for mixing digitized speech from at least one of the buffers to produce a mixed signal that is presented to an output device.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the participant record associated with each participant includes a reference speech amplitude. In such embodiments, the visual identification module deter
Lerner Edward A.
Min Arthur W.
Morris James E. G.
Multitude, Inc.
Pennie & Edmonds LLP
Vu Viet D.
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